W.A. Clark
History of Montana,by Joaquin Miller, 1894
USGENWEB Montana Archives,maintained by burns@asu.edu


W.A. Clark, Butte City, Montana--Western pluck, enterprise and 
intelligence are rightly accounted on 
on the theory that it was the strongest of mind and heart, as 
well as body, that pushed out from the 
older communities to the western frontier, especially into the 
wilds of the Rocky Mountain region in 
the early 1860's, some 2000 miles beyond the border of 
civilization. The weak, the timid, the vacilating 
were not apt to undertake the role of pathfinders, under the 
circumstances and conditions which brought 
the pioneers to Bannack, Virginia City and Last Chance Gulch. 
It was another race of men that came at that 
period to lay the foundation of this young commonwealth fitting 
exactly the poet's ideal of thos who 
"constitute a State," and who have given to Montana a pioneer 
history and acheivements in commerce and 
enterprise and government, alike, honorable and glorious. Among 
the pioneers of this stamp, non have 
achieved greater success or distinction that the Honorable W.A. 
Clarke of Butte City, Montana. The material 
benefits which the state has derived from his energy, enterprise 
and ability cannot be better presented or 
illustrated than by the recital of the story of his busy and 
eventful career.

W.A. Clark was born on the 8th day of January, 1839, near 
Connelsville, Fayette County, Pa. He is the son 
of John and Mary (Andrews) Clark, both natives of that county. 
The father of John Clark, whose name was 
also John was a native of County Tyrone, Ireland who emigrated 
to this country and settled in Pennsylvania 
after the Revolutionary War. The grandfather of the subject of 
our sketch was married to Miss Reed, of 
Chester County, Pennsylvania, whose parents also were from the 
north of Ireland. On the maternal side, 
William and Sarah Andrews, the grandparents of our subject, were 
also from County Tyrone, Ireland and 
settled in western Pa about the beginning of this century. Sarah 
Andrews' maiden name was Kithcart. 
She was a descendant of the Cathcart family who were originally 
Huguneuts, and the name changed to Kithcart
 by an error made by a registar in the transfer of a tract of 
land. The Cathcart familiy emigrated from 
France to Scotland at an early period, and later moved to the 
north of Ireland. Subsequently they emigrated 
to the United States and different branches of the family settled 
in New York and Pennsylvania.
The parents of our subject were married in Pennsylvania, where 
they resided until 1856. They then moved to 
Van Buren County Iowa where John Clark died in 1873, aged 
seventy-six years. In religious belief he was a 
Presbyterian and an Elder in that church for forty years before 
his death. Mrs. Clark now lives at Los Angeles, 
and is nearly eighty-one years of age.

Mr. Clark's father was a farmer, and his boyhood days were spent 
on the homestead where he enjoyed the 
advantages of three months' winter school and nine months of such 
farm work as the boy could turn his hand to.
 
At the age of fourteen he entered Laurel Academy and acquired a 
good education. In 1856 his father moved to 
Iowa and there William assisted the first year in improving and 
tilling the new prairie farm, teaching 
a term of school the succeeding winter. He then attended an 
academy at Birmingham one term, and afterward 
entered the university at Mount Pleasant, becoming a disciple of 
Blackstone. Here he prosecuted his legal
studies for two years, but did not afterward engage in the 
profession so that the broad and masterful 
career of a man of affairs in the western world was not cut 
short by his installment in a lawyer's office.
 
Young Clark now started toward the setting sun. In 1859-60 he 
was teaching school in Missouri. In 1862
he crossed the great plains driving a team to the South Park, 
Colorado and that winter worked in the 
quartz mines in Central City, gaining knowledge and experience 
that afterward served im a good purpose,
and perhaps in no small degree helped to shape his destiny as 
the future quartz king of Montana.

In 1863 the news of the gold discoveries at Bannack reached 
Colorado, and Mr. Clark was among the first
to start for this new El Dorado. After sixty-five days' travel 
with an ox team he arrived at Bannack, 
just in time to join a stampede to Horse Prairie. Here he secured 
a claim which he worked during this 
and the following season, cleaning up a net of $1,500 the first 
summer, which formed the basis of his 
future operations in Montana and the beginning of the immense 
fortune he has since accumulated. In the
ensuing five years we may pass rapidly over Mr. Clark's career, 
although it was one of push and enterprise, 
characteristic of the man. Instead of working in the placers, he 
took advantage of the opportunities offered
for trade and business and in less than half a decade was at the 
head of one of the largest wholesale
mercantile establishments in the Territory, built up from the 
smallest of beginnings. His first venture 
was to bring in a load of provisions from Salt Lake City in the 
winter of 1863-64, which he at once sold at 
amazing prices. Thenext winter this experiment was repeated on a 
large scale and Virginia City was his market.
 
In the spring of 1865 he opened a general merchanidse store at 
Blackfoot City then a new and hustling 
mining camp. In the fall of the same year he sold his store and 
noticing that tobacco was a scarce article 
in the mining camps, went on horseback to Boise City, Idaho, 
where he purchased several thousand pounds of 
the weed and at a cost of $1.50/pound. Securing a team he drove 
to Helena with his precious cargo, closing 
it out at five and six dollars a pound to ready purchasers. In 
February 1866 Mr. Clark joined a stampede to
Elk Creek where he established another store and sold goods to 
miners during the season. He sold out in 
the fall and took a trip to the Pacific Coast going as far as 
San Francisco, and making a goodly portion 
of the journey on horseback. He then returned to Montana, with 
a stock of goods which he had selected to 
meet the wants of the miners and which he readily disposed of at 
large profits.

In October 1866 Mr. Clark went East by way of Fort Benton and the 
Mackinaw Route being thirty-five days
making the voyage from Fort Benton to Sioux City. After visiting 
the principal cities of the Union, 
including a sojourne to the South, he returned to Montana the 
following year. We next hear of him as a mail 
contractor on the star route between Missoula and Walla Walla, a 
distance of 400 miles where his energy and 
rustling qualities had ample scope to display themselves, but he 
made a success of mail carrying and staging 
as he did in every other undertaking. His next move was in the 
director of a wider sphere of business action.
In the autumn of 1868 he made a trip to New York City and there 
formed a co-partnership with Mr. R.W. Donnell 
for the purpose of engaging in the wholesale mercantile and 
banking business in this Territory, a connection 
that resulted in one of the strongest business firms in that 
period in Montana. They shipped a large stock of 
general merchandise via the Missouri River in the spring of 1869 
and established an extensive wholesale business 
at Helena. In 1870 the business was transferred to Deer Lodge and 
consolidated with that of Mr. Donnell in the
west side city. At this time, Mr. S.E. Larabie was admitted into 
the business and the firm of Donnell, Clark 
and Larabie entered upon a successful career. They soon closed 
out their mercantile business and gave exclusive 
attention to banking , first at Deer Lodge and at a later date 
at both that palce and at Butte City. 

In May 1884 Messrs. Clark and Larabie purchased the interest of 
Mr. Donnell in their Montana business and 
subsequently Mr. Clark and his brother, James Ross Clark, came 
into full ownership of the Butte Bank, disposing of his Deer Lodge 
interests. The banking house of W.A. Clark and Brother, of Butte 
City has since that time grown into one of the
strongest banking institutions of the west. But it is in his 
mining investments and in the operation of 
vast mills and smelters for the treatment of base ores that Mr. 
Clark has made the great success of his 
life, and contributed so largely to the development and prosperity 
of the state. No other individual has 
played so conspicious a part in this direction. In 1872 Mr. 
Clark first began to give attention to the 
quartz prospects of Butte, purchasing in this year in whole or 
in part the Original, Colusa, Mountain Chief, 
Gambetta and others nearly all of which proved afterward to be 
fabulously rich. In order to fit himself for 
a successful mining career, Mr. Clark spent the winter of 1872-3 
at the School of Mines, Columbia College, 
taking a course in practical assaying and analysis, with a 
general outline of mineralogy, gaining a 
knowledge that afterward served him in excellent part in his 
extensive mining, milling and smelting operations.
 
The first stamp mill of Butte the Old Dexter, was finished in 
1876 by the financial help of Mr. Clark. 
The first smelter of consequence in Butte was erected by a 
company organized by him. This was the Colorado 
and Montana Company, which still continues as one of the leading 
enterprises of the Copper City. Mr. Clark 
is one of the principal stockholders and is vice-president of the 
company. In 1880 he organized the Moulton 
Company which at once proceeded to the erection of the Moulton 
Mill and the development of the mine. 
The company built a complete dry-crushing and chloridizing forty-
stamp mill, sank a three compartment 
shart 800 feet put in a modern pumping and hoisting works, and 
thoroughly explored the property at a 
cost of about $500,000. This mine has been in succesful operation 
since. Even though the period of 
financial depression, when nearly every other silver mine in the 
west closed down, the stamps of the 
Moulton never ceased to drop. W.A. Clark is president of the 
Moulton and his brother Joseph K. Clark, manager. 

Mr. Clark and his brother James R. own the Butte Reduction Works 
and the Colusa Parrot and several other copper
and silver mines in connection therewith. Besides his interests 
in these companies, he has large individual 
holdings in the mines of Butte many of which are in successful 
operation, affording employment to large numbers
of men. He also owns valuable mining properties in Idaho and 
Arizona. The United Verde Copper Company' s property 
in Arizona, owned by him is just now the first wonder of the 
mining world. It is probably the richest and most
extensive copper mine in the world, not excepting the Anaconda, 
Mountain View or any of the big properties of 
Butte. Mr. Clark has just completed and equipped a railroad to 
this mine, connecting with the Sante Fe system 
which is a marvel of engineering and for its length (twenty-six 
miles) one of the most expensive in the west.
 
He has built immense modern smelting and refining plants at this 
mine and in the future his output of copper
will only be limited by the demands of the world market.
 
Mr. Clark established the first water system in Butte, also the 
first electric light plant. He is the owner 
of the Butte Miner, one of the leading daily papers of the state. 
He is principal owner and president 
of the Cable and Electric Railways of Butte and largely 
interested in many other industiral enterprises
besides the mining and smelting of ores. 
 

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